


Three’s a crowd

by rudbeckia



Series: Spookylux Huxloween 2018 [28]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Brendol Hux's A+ Parenting, M/M, Mild Horror, Verbal Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 07:22:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16424924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudbeckia/pseuds/rudbeckia
Summary: Huxloween day 28: First halloween togetherBen and Hux are having their first Halloween celebration dinner together when an uninvited guest arrives to spoil the mood.





	Three’s a crowd

The clicks and scrapes of silverware on porcelain, audible over soft music, made Ben smile. He watched Hux eat by candlelight, voraciously and with obvious pleasure, but took more time with his own portion of squash and sweet potato casserole with boiled rice. Hux caught him looking and stopped.  
“What?”  
“Nothing,” said Ben, still smiling. “I’m pleased you’re enjoying dinner. I worried that you might not like my cooking after the cake incident.”  
Hux grinned. “I seem to remember that the cake incident ended in a very satisfactory manner.”  
“That reminds me,” said Ben, lifting his wine glass to his lips. “I used the last of the syrup in dessert.”  
Hux paused with a forkful of food halfway to his face. “There’s dessert?” Ben nodded. “Fuck, you’re perfect. Marry me.”  
Ben spluttered and coughed. Hux sat back and pushed his chair from the table as if to get up. “I didn’t mean... It was a... Are you okay?”  
Ben nodded. He took a deep, steadying breath and wheezed, “I’m fine.”  
The candles flickered and settled as Hux returned his attention to his food. Ben poured more wine and wiped a spatter of red from the centrepiece: a skull with grinning, tobacco-stained teeth and orbits that flickered with colour-changing light from a tacky fake candle. Hux pointed his knife at it and smiled at Ben. “This is the best family dinner we’ve ever had.”  
Ben relaxed. “Do you want more ‘spiced innards with maggots’ or should I bring through the ‘brains in pus’?” Hux raised his eyebrows. Ben laughed. “It’s syrup sponge with apple sauce and custard. Store bought so I only had to soak the sponge cake in syrup.”

The temperature dropped and the candle flames died down and went out, leaving smouldering wicks that sent lines of smoke up into still air, lit by the colour changing flicker from the centrepiece. Hux and Ben both froze.

**You’re as lazy and useless as he is.**

Hux dropped his wine glass. It tipped over and spilled a dark red puddle over the light orange tablecloth. Ben glared and looked around then slapped at the wall to find the light switch. He clicked it on and off rapidly but nothing happened. Their eyes met. Ben frowned and said, “Did you just hear—?”

**You always were a clumsy boy. All elbows and knees, and always in the way.**

“It can’t be,” Hux said, shaking his head and shoving his chair back hard. He stood up. “It just can’t. I saw his head hit the floor and roll away. I washed the blood from the desk and the fire-axe and got rid of the body, wrapped up the rug.” Hux stood rigid, hands clenched tight. “The old bastard’s dead.”

**Show some respect, stupid boy. You’re the bastard. You were a mistake. I allowed you to live out of charity.**

The little tealight lamp inside Brendol’s skull, the only light still on in the room, glowed crimson and brightened impossibly until the LEDs popped as they burned out. Ben leapt forward, grabbed the skull, opened the dining room window wide and hurled it out into the backyard where it bounced off the far wall with a sickening crack then rolled across the concrete ground. Hux made for the door through to the kitchen and then outside after the skull.

**Should’ve drowned you at birth like an unwanted kitten and had that slut spayed like the hell-cat she was.**

Ben followed Hux out. He rummaged in the lockup toolbox that rested against the exterior house wall and handed Hux a club-hammer. Without taking his eyes off the skull, Hux grasped the handle and swung it from above his shoulder. Brendol’s skull smashed like eggshell. Hux swung again and again and again.

When all that remained of Brendol was rough grey powder, Ben stepped forward and gripped Hux’s arm on the upswing.  
“Enough.”  
Hux roared. “More!”  
“That’s enough!” Ben eased the hammer from Hux’s grip and dropped it to the ground. He held Hux tight and rocked him until he felt shoulders loosen and hands slide around his waist. “Let’s sweep him up and you can dump him somewhere.”  
Hux nodded and pushed away from Ben. He fetched a dustpan and brush and scraped up the grey powder, turning to paste on the damp ground. He marched back inside with it and thundered upstairs. As Ben scrubbed the concrete with bleach, he heard a flush, a hiss as the cistern refilled, and another flush. He waited until he saw the lights come on before going back indoors.

Hux was in the dining room. “He was a shit his entire life,” he said. “My shoulder hurts. Can I have dessert now?”


End file.
